1-16-04
I took the cruise over the hill to Bouse, pronounced bow sah. Accent on the first. Bouse is a really nice little town. There really isn’t much there but it definitely isn’t the rat race that there is in Quartzite. I would imagine there are a lot of people there that leave in the summer and return in the winter. I did notice that there were a lot of military planes flying the area and I could hear them form my camp the other side of the hill. Evidently the area has a long history of military training. General Patton trained his tank troops here. I have always heard that you can still see the tank tracks in the desert and how after fifty years you can still see their mark. Well, dah, they weighed what? Forty tons? There are a couple of old tanks at Bouse along the highway and one guy said they always have a big celebration put on by the vfw. I guess the whole desert area was a training area during wwII. The fenced off area near my camp evidently wasn’t an old ancient art site after all, that is up the road a few miles. The site I was at had a big north arrow and the words Quartzite 11 with an arrow pointing that way. A guy I was talking with said the airplanes would check their instruments and find their way home with those markers. They are all over the desert, I imagine those guys got lost a lot learning and to keep them from ending up in Kansas or someplace they gave out hints.
We camped somewhere out of Salome on the road to the mountains. There is a large farming area there and I could see that the fields were being irrigated (probably preirragated) and getting ready for planting. On the way back down off the hill in the morning, I stopped at one of the fields and took a look. The beds were about five feet across and down each bed was rows of new seedlings in the cotyledon stage. The plants were really packed close to each other and maybe they will thin them out as it seems impossible that all could produce. There were green ones and purple sprouts. I just had to know what they were so I drove back down the road were there was a main farm
complex, the sign said Delmonte, and found a couple of guys fixing a pickup. The farm yard was really something to see. This is a big business venture. There were about thirty fourwheel drive tractors, all the same and lots of water filtration systems on trailers. The yard was filled with a huge array of farm equipment as well as large vegetable crate/boxes. I am not sure what a lot of that stuff is but I did recognize four cotton pickers that are huge like dinosaurs. I don’t speak Spanish and they guy I talked with didn’t speak much English, but with arm waving and pointing I got the news that what I was looking at was lettuce planting. I think the dust in the distance they were planting carrots, and in the other direction not visible, three something over, were onions. I did notice when I was looking at the lettuce seedlings there was a sign that said to not spray as it was organic. This ain’t no hippie deal I can tell you.
Well on the way out I just had to go check out the carrot planting. I could see some guys out in the field working on a tractor in the field. I took a hike and walked out there about a half mile. I got our there just as they were getting the darn thing going. They had been setting the sprayers on the back of the tractor. The big four by four John Deere tractor with tires as tall as I am and large tanks on the front and back was straddling three beds and spraying five. The beds were about three feet centers with a top of two feet. There were four rows on each side of the top of the bed. This was not a planting operation, the planter was here and gone to another field and these guys were spraying it with must be some sort of herbicide. I couldn’t smell anything even though I usually smell chemicals like that. These Mexicans were still having problems with getting the spray equal on all rows and were in there with their bare hands and of course a fine fog of spray. It didn’t take me long to see that I didn’t want to see or breathe anymore of that. I think I did see a tractor seeding in a far off field but didn’t go over. I have been hearing a lot of talk about the Mexican amnesty that bush has proposed and just as much talk about how we need to send them back across the border. Well, I can see some major problems ahead if all the Mexicans take a hike. I would imagine that that farm operation will come to a screeching halt as well as the dairy operation that I looked at in Amargosa valley in Nevada. The dairy operation had maybe fifty Mexicans and there were only two white guys there and one of those was a visiting electrician. As I drive around I see the disparity of living conditions as well. Here there are walled RV and mobile home parks that are really nice and just down the road there are pretty scrappy places with old trailers or way old motels that house the laborers. It has to be pretty miserable out here in the summer working the fields. I saw a crew putting out a quarter section of handlines and today it wasn’t bad out there at seventy degrees. I will bet not many young people in the towns will come out and work in over one hundred degree heat in summer.
There were several fields that I went past that were planted and were being irrigated. There were several that were using plastic to cover the rows and they had thrown up a light covering of soil over the plastic. I would imagine that it is to keep the soil somewhat cooler, but not sure. I guess it might retard the degradation as well which could really help when picking up the stuff. I have seen fields in California that were just strewn with scraps of plastic row cover and drip tubing. When the guy renting the land got in a hurry to get a crop in he would just disk the plastic in. what a mess. With all the filtration systems around I think they must use quite a bit of drip or micro sprinklers/emitters. That reminds me of the old guy in Tecopa hot springs that had a small orchard of date palms that he was irrigating with drip. He showed me how the emitters plug up and what he did was use a needle in a pair of vice-grips to make a small hole. He said that was the best way and they plugged up much less than the emitters and cost nothing. The drip tubing is expensive enough, but all the little emitters and connections really add up.
Oh, I crossed over the central Arizona canal and it was running brim full. I think it goes from the Colorado river near lake havasau to down below phoenix. It is planting time in the lower desert.
There are places all along the road that are selling flea market stuff as well as jewelry and rocks and u name it. There was a place, I think it was Hope, at a junction that had several people set up. I could see a couple of older airstream trailers there and I stopped to stretch my legs. Well there were two guys that came over to talk airstreams and I got to talking with one of them later who was quite nice guy. He was a car exporter and had a place in so calif and finally figured out that he was not liking it and wasn’t making any money after paying all the bills. He bought an old airstream and sells stuff at this corner. He said that what the hell, he pays fifty bucks a month and has water and sewer dump as well as he can have the mail delivered to him AND he has a commercial space and can sell anything. There are people set up on both sides of the road and while I was there they were probably a dozen people that stopped to look around. I hope I never have to live and pimp in Hope but it is always an option. Oh, yah, he exported foreign made cars to Europe. Mostly MG’s but others as well. He has unmarked MG number plates for sale. He said he had five I think. Uncle mike would probably jump at those.
Well, I cruised on over the hill and down into Wickenburg. On the way, in the hills are just starting to get covered with major expensive houses. Quite a few of them are built in the pueblo style as well as cape cod and southern mansion.
I headed down town and went to the chamber of commerce office to pick up a map of Arizona. I walked by a real-estate office and on the way back I stopped in to see just what the price of land was in the area. Both guys in the office were with people and the receptionist had me take a seat if I wanted to wait. Well both guys left with customers to show them houses or land, not sure which, and the gal came over and handed me several sheets of land available in the area. After she revived me with a bucket of water, she explained just how expensive it was getting to be around there. Yes, it is pricey for sure.
1-17-04
I headed back up the road and camped out on a ridge over the highway and dropped down into town in the morning to do my laundry. The library was across the street and I checked my email and was able to answer a few of them. They charge fifty cents with is the first time I have been charged at a public library. Plenty cheap for sure but there was a line up and I didn’t have long on line.
I loaded up my wash and headed down the road looking for a camp where I could hang out my laundry. I finally found a small road that didn’t have a locked gate and went down it a quarter mile or so until I found a camp spot with a nice palo verde tree close by. I took a nap and when I got up the clothes were dry. Love that desert air!!!
I headed on east and came to a place where I could see very large targets in the distance with popping sounds!! The next turnoff was marked as a shooting range. The racket in the distance was very interesting, so I pulled in. this is a really nice shooting range. There were probably fifty shooting spots for centerfire shooting, both rifle and pistol. There was a rimfire range as well. I walked in and looked around. There was just about everything you could imagine being shot. One black guy had a whole bench of pistols and two were very interesting. One was a gold plated titanium desert eagle slider and the other was a new five shot fifty caliber smith and Wesson. I watched him shoot it once and he let his friend shoot it once as well. The friend took two steps back and he was done shooting. That is one powerful pistol. The black guy said he loaded it up with light loads because he won’t shoot the full power ones. It doesn’t look like fun to shoot, so what is the point?
I checked the charges and the gal said it would be five dollars for a whole day of shooting. I saw that there was a campground, so I checked on that as well and it is ten bucks for dry camp. I could hear the booming in the distance where the big targets were located and found how to get over there. They were holding the national championship military rifle shoot. They shot two, three, and six hundred yards. They were just finishing up when I got there but I was surprised to see several women shooting. There were quite a few guys with shaved heads and wearing desert cameo that I took to be either military or ex military guys. They shoot with partners and take turns in the pit where they bring down the target and mark where it was hit. This is a much better deal than I had when Ken was shooting at the one thousand yard target and I was hunkered down behind a little mound of dirt. I could hear and feel the bullets hitting the hill and when he would miss the hill and hit the target I would get splatter from the bullet hitting the steel target. I understand he only talks people into doing that once!!! I talked with one guy who said that the morning shooting was pretty tough with the wind but a least that was at the closer ranges. The wind had calmed down in the evening and there were several hot air balloons up and above the smog layer. I am fairly close to the Phoenix megopolis now.
I headed back over to the main range and bought a space for the night. Gosh, I am getting to be a real campground hack, and a paying one to boot!! There are only a few campers here and I will get a jump on shooting tomorrow (Sunday) when they open up the range at seven. I dug out my Roger rifle and the Browning I got from Mike that I want to test fire. I bought several different loads of ammo for the 223 and I want to see which does the best. When I was at mikes I loaded up two hundred rounds of 218 bee ammo that seemed to do best according to the chronograph (sp) tests. This will be a good place to give them a test if the wind doesn’t get with it tomorrow. They supply the target frame and tape to attach your own target. This should be fun tomorrow.
Well I find that there is a pack of boy scouts that are camped here near me. I took e dog over to meet a few of the boys and visited with a couple of the older guys. They said that there was still some interest in shooting and they take the boys that want to go up here for the weekend every January. The are only allowed to shoot 22’s but one of the kids piped up an said they can shoot fifty caliber muzzle loaders too. several of the boys have their merit badges already. I’m glad to see there is still the boy scouts and they are shooting too.
I just checked out the fancy restroom facilities and found that there is a shower there! It ain’t as good as a hot spring, but it will do for now. Gee, clean clothes and a shower (I don’t really need one you understand, but if it is here I might as well use it.) and all day shooting with a bunch of gun nuts, it can’t get much better…..
Speaking of gun nuts, I saw a group of guys and gals all dressed in black, some with knee length black lace up boots, with lots of chains and tattoos that were shooting a pile of pistols and shot guns. I didn’t watch them other than to walk by but the guy that was shooting when I walked by was just running through clip after clip as fast as he could. Other shooters are going for accuracy and there were several dads teaching young kids to shoot. There were a few women shooters and the range safety personal were all women. This group is so different from what I have been around in quartzite mainly in that they are not all old folks. There are a few older people, but most of them are young.
1-18-04
they opened up the gate a little after seven and it was just getting so you could see pretty good. I got over there about sunrise and conditions were just perfect. Since I was a first time user, I had to watch a video about safety. They supplied big frames with cardboard centers for taping your target to. They also sold targets and I see that quite a few of the people buy them rather than bring their own. I had my own that I copied form the one I got from Mike Cox. These are Mikes own design and they are really nice with a large place at the bottom to record all the particulars on the shoot, rifle, ammo specs, etc. well, the shooters started right off and there was some serious banging going on. I really didn’t like is so much in that it was a real free for all in what was being shot. The guy next to you on one side was shooting a 22 pistol and on the other side a .308 and then they would grab a nine mm or a 45 and blast away. There were guys like Randy (our very own newspaper jock)that had big clips and would run through a couple thirty round clips in less than a minute. Some of those guys were having just too much fun. Big grins on their faces for sure. I was plunking one at a time and switching off between Roger rifle and Mike rifle. Low recoil and minimal noise for me, thanks. I had a variety of ammo that I bought for Mike rifle to see what kind of ammo it likes. I haven’t really studied the targets yet, but it seems to like the 52 grain the best of the store bought ammo. I had some bulk rounds that Mike gave me to try and they shot pretty good but by far the best were his hand loads. What is the load for those, Mike?
Roger fifle shot like a little dream with the loads that Mike and I worked up
for it. The best was half inch or so. That is with bulk bullets!!! I had a few
of the handloads that T bone gave me to try and they shot well too, except that
I had one rupture a primer again. I had this happen with another of his loads. I
have the specs on the load but can’t get to them row. They shoot the best for
him and have the ballistic tip nosler bullets. According to T bone they are the
primo prairie dog load. My rife shoots the load very well but something is wrong
for it to rupture the primer.
I ran a few clips through my high standard 45 and was disappointed again with its performance. Failure to feed and lock open with rounds in the clip with 230 grain and failure to lock up with the 185’s. so far that pistol has really been a lemon. Ken spent an evening working on the ejector and tuned it up for me. It extracted perfectly, thanks Ken.
Next came out the smith and wessons 22’s. I guess it is not too surprising that they both like the target ammo the best and was very pleased to get a four shot group with the long barrel one around one inch at fifteen yards standing two hands. I do have to admit that there was a major flyer on that five shot group which opened the group up to three or four inches.J
I finally had enough of the major noise and went back to the pod and quickly stashed my stuff and hit the shower. Not bad at all. This shooting facility is all new and it is really set up nice. There were quite a few families that came out and one guy next to me had two daughters in their teens or early twenties that were quite proficient at their nine mm’s. it surprised me when a gal by herself took the next bench and proceeded to stack the bench with pistols. She must have had half a dozen forth fives, nines and a couple of revolvers! She couldn’t hit shit with any of them. The range safety officers tried to help her but she was flinching something terrible. I think she should have been shooting 22’s instead of the big guys. She had one 45 that she said her ‘other’ had taken to the fix it shop because the last time he shot it, it went full auto. Does that sound right? Is it possible for a colt to go full auto? That could be a big surprise for sure. She finally moved her target up to five yards and started getting it on the paper. I hope her ‘other’ is a better shot or they are in big trouble.
I was talking with another neighbor and mentioned that I wanted to get a set of the hearing protectors that are electronic so I could hear speech and protect what is left of my ears. For those of you that don’t know about them, they are an electronic amplifiers that instantly turn off when there is a loud noise. They allow regular conversation as well as they can be turned up for better hearing when hunting. He said that while I was so near I should go to Dillon Precision and pick up a pair. I thought they were in Tucson but he drew me a map and it was fairly easy to find the place. I guess the owner is a plane guy and he has his building on the edge of the airport. It is in a fairly new development area and we are talking high end stuff here. Since it is so new all the spaces in the industrial development area are not built on yet. Get the picture? Empty lots of desert land between large complexes. I am camped out behind the Dillon building between a completely thrashed corvette and a semi truck trailer used for storage on a vacant lot. The only problem so far is the airport traffic sometimes gets a little noisy. There was a really loud red biplane and an ex air force plane, the type they used in wwII. There are a few jets now and then as well, but that air force plane must have been doing touch and go’s as he was back every five minutes or so. A way cool plane for sure, but plenty loud. I will pick up some new ears in the morning unless the security finds me. I took e dog out for a run around the park area and came across a guy fueling a mid size jet. He was really nice and he told me that things were picking up with some sort of major car auction that was happening as well as a golf tournament.
Spring time down here too. there are quite a few trees and lots of flowers are blooming. At the range there were honey bees that were looking over everything that was red or yellow. It seems a little early, but I am not complaining you understand.
I just took the bike out for a little cruise up the road to the new car dealerships. Wow! That was an eye opener for sure. The first place was the Cadillac place. The dealerships all have the cars out in front and the pickups in the back, which is just the opposite in Miles. The Caddy dealer did have about six Humvees out front and I stopped to look at them as well as the little cad suvs. The hummers were about 55k up and surprisingly the cad suvs were right up there too. The security guy saw me outside and came out to chat. They had a hummer in the showroom and it was really dolled up with two tone paint and fancy wheels. I asked how much that one was and he said it was 110K. You have to pay extra for the fancy babes. I wondered how people could afford them, and he said it doesn’t seem to be a problem as they sell three or four a DAY. They started with 90+ of them and all they have are six left. We got to talking price of land and I said that in Wickenburg the land was around 30 K/ac and he said here it was 80-100K for an acre. I heard something on the radio by rush Limbaugh that said that in Arizona you could take off the purchase price of a humvee or large suv on your business taxes. That may be the reason why they sell so many. I do see a lot of them on the road. I checked on sticker and for a deluxe gas cap they charge $495. it was very nice locking cap.
Ely just went wild barking and I ran out to see what the problem was. She never barks at people but I went out armed just in case, u never know in town what might come up. Well, there was a mangy coyote about twenty feet away. He wasn’t concerned in the slightest and casually walked off. I guess we are in his neighborhood and he was on his way to a chow station. As soon as it gets dark and everyone is safely in front of the tv, the wild ones come on in and it is their turn.
The next place was the Dodge place and I really had to search for a pickup with a Cummins. They must have had sixty ¾ tons but only had two with the Cummins. The cheapest was 38,900. they had some fancy little cars in the same range or more.
They last two dealers were Toyota and Nissan. There was this cutest little squared off cracker box with skinny little wheels near the showroom and there were several salesmen hanging around so I asked what the heck that was. Gosh, I forget the name (Scion?) by Toyota but they are only sold in California and they bought that one just to show people what they look like. Toyota will be selling them in stages from calif and heading back east in stages. He said that they put ten thousand dollars in extras on that one but the base price is about fifteen in calif. He said they buy then in calif and sell them for more in AZ because they are not for sale here. I was having a hard time with the three grand they tacked onto a little sporty car for special wheels and the salesman said, this is Scottsdale and people don’t want a plain one, and they will pay what ever. I guess it is like the Hummer guy said, “they just borrow the money”.
I took a look at the new ‘big’ Toyota pickups and see that they cost over thirty thousand. Of course this is sticker price and they probably don’t get these prices.
1-19-04
it was really quiet last night after the coyote attack and they must have had the planed land and take off in a different direction, or there was no traffic. One of the workers stopped by this morning to see what was going on. He was driving an old arm jeep that had been restored. He had pulled the jeep out of the huge hanger that is part of the building complex. I could see inside and WOW, does he have some nice toys!!! I guess when it is all over and the guy with the most toys wins, this guy may be the winner. I talked with what I think was the pilot and asked him what the two cool little planes were. He said they were T-34’s I think. It was really hard to hear as a plane was going over at the time. These were just like new and painted cameo pattern. The guys were wheeling out a fair size executive jet that maybe sat twenty people that somebody was going to fly today. Also in the hanger was a military chopper(an HU something) restored and another smaller helicopter. There was another plane in there but I don’t remember what it was but it only had one engine so I guess it was his economy transportation alternative. It looked like that military chopper had a machine gun mount on it and maybe he has a machine gun for it. The thrashed out Corvette that I parked next to has some sort of a mount on the hood that looks like it might be a machine gun mount too!! that would be pretty cool for road rage encounter. Owning a company that makes ammo reloading equipment would help when it comes to shooting a machine gun.
They opened up at nine and I made it in and out with hearing protectors and a set of gunsmith screwdrivers. I got directions to one of the local libraries and found it without too much problem or illegal turns. It was really quiet around there and I finally realized it was a holiday even in Az. The old governer opted out of the holiday but was kicked out of office and the new Gov reinstated it. According to some on the talk radio, the still don’t want it. Politics rules!!!!
I went up to the door and they had a sign on it that said that they had wifi and to check inside at the desk. Well, I went back to the pickup and plugged in the wifi aerial I got in quartzite and popped open the laptop. I was getting a good signal but try as I might I could never get it to access the internet after connecting to the signal. I must be doing something wrong, but it is beyond me how to get it to crank. It could be that it is password protected somehow, but I don’t think that is the problem. It is frustrating and I did not want to hang around there until the next day. This was in a new area of Scottsdale and it was surely upscale. I stopped into a shopping center and all the cars were shinny new and the people in the grocery store were all really nice looking people. I got to talking with an old guy bagging groceries and he was telling me he had to bag groceries because his social security just didn’t cover his expenses. He was really worried. I can’t imagine how he ended up in the area as it must cost a fortune for a house or apartment around there.
I got lost on the way out of there and ended up in the foothills that they were building some really huge houses and the area was all guard house gated communities or fenced with electronic activated gates. The biggest houses were described as premium view lots and they really did have a nice view of the smog layer over the city below. I finally found a guy that was walking a fat lab who told me how to get out of there and on to the road I I wanted. All the houses and building are painted nearly the same color of browns. There are no colors used except the stores have small signs that have some color. Even the McDonalds has a small sign with small arches.
The whole area around there is an example of how highway and town planning can be done well. The roads are divided and there is landscaping with desert plants and lots of bike lanes and walkways. I guess because there are people there who have money and voting power, they get nice planning. I remember my friend Jeff in cave creek started a garden club when the highway department was going to widen and ‘improve’ the road through cave creek. The highway plan was just a plain road, but they were able to get them to make it a divided road with turnouts and turn lanes with landscaping. As I went through this time it had grown up really nice and make it SO much nicer than just a plain road.
I made it out of there and am camped at the place where the Salt River comes out of the canyon. This is the place where Susan, Tova and I camped thirteen years ago and the place I found the parrot effigy. I really like this place and think I will hang out here for a while. It is forest service land, so I should be able to stay without any problem for a few days.
2 million people and fat ones everywhere you look
I heard on the radio that there are now over two million people here in the phoenix area. There are fat Saguaro cactus everywhere around here. The place must have gotten a good rain recently as they really puff up when they get full of water. Most of them have lots of fat arms too. The riparian area is thick with vegetation. The weatherman says that there is a possibility of rain tomorrow but if not I hope to take a good hike with the dog.
1-20-04
We had a really good hike up to the canyon mouth (or should it be called the anus, as it dumps into the big valley?) this morning. There are lots of cactus and bushes with thorns, hooks, spikes, etc. it is amazing how e dog only got one major thorn in her paw. We have yet to meet up with the ‘jumping teddy bear cactus’ tho…. It seems like everything around here is out to get blood out of you or inject you with a barbed spike.
It rained a couple of drops last night and I heard on the radio that there was snow in northern and eastern Az and that Gephart will have to go back to Missouri and deal with chiggers, ticks and enough humidity to choke a mule. Susan came back from Missouri with little red spots all over her that she itched till they bled, been there and scratched those.
I am in the library at punkin center, az or it may be Tonto Basin, AZ
Nice place.
Till later, Rx
Amy, there was something wrong with the reply to me. Corrupt material is said, gee just what I need!!! Send again please or maybe just the link.
All; if you will send links instead of pasting info it works better and keeps the mail box smaller.
Hi All, This year the Tucson Gem and Mineral show will celebrate
their 50th anniversary. This show is the granddaddy of them all.
The emphasis will be on gold. I imagine the special displays will
be a collection of gold specimen from museums around the world and
from private collections. This show will probably have the largest
collection of gold in the world. The shows runs form February 12
through the 15 at the Tucson Civic Center. (where the AGTA show is
held at an earlier date)